1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printer and relates more particularly to a printer that prints by bidirectionally moving a carriage on which a print head is mounted.
2. Related Art
One type of printer is a roll paper printer such as taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2007-203563. Roll paper printers are commonly used for printing sales receipts and coupons that are issued based on product purchases.
Roll paper is typically stored in such roll paper printers with the rotational axis of the roll paper aligned with the width of the printer, and the printer prints on the roll paper by moving the print head mounted on a carriage bidirectionally widthwise to the printer while pulling paper from the paper roll.
Because they are used to print receipts and coupons, for example, roll paper printers are typically installed in limited space beside the cash register. Compact printers with a small width are therefore particularly desirable.
With the roll paper printer taught in JP-A-2007-203563, however, the drive shaft of the carriage drive motor extends horizontally, and when a motor that is wide in the direction of the drive shaft is used as the carriage drive motor, the depth of the roll paper printer in that direction necessarily becomes larger.